Tag: advance review copy

#BookReview A Time For Swords by Matthew Harffy @AriesFiction

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Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for A Time For Swords by Matthew Harffy, the first book in a brand new series set in the Viking age. My thanks to Jade at Head of Zeus for inviting me to take part in the tour and for my digital review copy via NetGalley. Do check out the post by my tour buddy for today, Sue at Brown Flopsy’s Book Burrow. Available now as an ebook, A Time for Swords will be published in hardback on 4th March 2021.

Harffy_A TIME FOR SWORDS_HB packshotAbout the Book

Lindisfarne, AD793. There had been portents – famine, whirlwinds, lightning from clear skies, serpents seen flying through the air. But when the raiders came, no one was prepared. They came from the North, their dragon-prowed longships gliding out of the dawn mist as they descended on the kingdom’s most sacred site.

It is 8th June AD793, and with the pillage of the monastery on Lindisfarne, the Viking Age has begun. While his fellow monks flee before the Norse onslaught, one young novice stands his ground. He has been taught to turn the other cheek, but faced with the slaughter of his brothers and the pagan desecration of his church, forgiveness is impossible.

Hunlaf soon learns that there is a time for faith and prayer… and there is a time for swords.

Format: ebook (400 pages)                        Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 10th December 2020 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find A Time for Swords on Goodreads

Purchase links*
Amazon UK
*Link provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

Matthew Harffy is best known for his Bernicia Chronicles series set in 7th century Northumbria of which Fortress of Fury is the latest instalment. Last year also saw publication of his standalone historical novel, Wolf of Wessex.

A Time for Swords takes place a century on from the exploits of Beobrand in the Bernicia Chronicles, transporting the reader to the time of the first Viking raids on the northeast of Britain. Our narrator is Hunlaf who, in old age, seeks to record the story of an eventful life. As he says, “I’ve seen things people wouldn’t believe. A Turkic ship on fire off the shore of Odessa. I’ve watched sunbeams glitter in the dark eyes of the Empress of Roma as we passed beneath Byzantion’s Golden Gate. I do not want all those moments to be lost in time like the winter snow when the rains of spring come.” (Is it just me or is that a subtle allusion to the ‘tears in rain’ speech by Rutger Hauer at the end of the film Bladerunner? If so, it will demonstrate the efforts of my MA English tutor to have me grasp the concept of intertextuality were not in vain.)

Hunlaf begins his story looking back to his time as a young novice at the minster of Werceworthe (modern day Warkworth in Northumberland). Despite his vocation, Hunlaf admits to being enthralled as a boy by the tales his father told him of Beobrand’s exploits against the Mercians (the subject of Fortress of Fury). As a neat in-joke, the author has Hunlaf observe, “I am sure now…that all such yarns have been embellished, for is that not the way of the storyteller, to make the tale more exciting than the simple truth?”

When he travels to Lindisfarne with his fellow monk, Brother Leofstan, Hunlaf has an unexpected reunion and, with echoes of The Name of the Rose, catches sight of a forbidden book in the monastery’s library. Both events will be significant for the future but, for the time being, are overshadowed by the arrival of three Viking warships. Murder, rape and pillage follow but, during the raid, Hunlaf discovers his instinct is to fight the attackers not flee. That action will result in the forging of an unlikely alliance and mark a change in the future path of his life. It will also leave him with long-lasting memories of the dreadful sights he witnessed.  “A warrior’s scars are many, and not all of them leave their mark on the flesh.”

Knowing the Vikings are likely to target other vulnerable sites such as Werceworthe, Hunlaf joins the search for warriors willing to help defend the community. Six eventually become a warband of seven, each with their own particular skill with sword, axe or bow. By the way, if you’re thinking seven is a significant (even a magnificent) number you’re correct, as the author explains in his afterword. Each of the seven have their own personal reasons for wanting to fight, whether that’s to test themselves against the best, to protect the weak or a desire for revenge.

Like the inhabitants of Werceworthe, the reader anxiously awaits the return of the Norsemen, hoping that the crude defensive devices they have prepared and their carefully thought-out plans will be sufficient to protect the community.  It will come as no surprise to readers of Matthew Harffy’s previous books that the action scenes are vividly described so you feel every thud of axe upon shield, hear the swift flight of arrows towards the enemy and smell the burning houses.  Will Hunlaf take up his quill to record more of his adventures? If he does, it promises to be to tell of a quest to rival John Wayne’s in The Searchers.

A Time For Swords is a skillfully crafted and compelling introduction to what seems certain to be an addictive new series for fans of historical fiction.

In three words: Thrilling, action-packed, immersive

Try something similar: Wolf of Wessex by Matthew Harffy

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Harffy_MatthewAbout the Author

Matthew grew up in Northumberland where the rugged terrain, ruined castles and rocky coastline had a huge impact on him. He now lives in Wiltshire, England with his wife and their two daughters.

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#BookReview 337 by M. Jonathan Lee @HideawayFall #337LEE

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337About the Book

337 follows the life of Samuel Darte whose mother vanished when he was in his teens. It was his brother, Tom who found her wedding ring on the kitchen table along with the note.

While their father pays the price of his mother’s disappearance, Sam learns that his long-estranged Gramma is living out her last days in a nursing home nearby. Keen to learn about what really happened that day and realising the importance of how little time there is, he visits her to finally get the truth. Soon it’ll be too late and the family secrets will be lost forever. Reduced to ashes.

But in a story like this, nothing is as it seems.

Format: Paperback (384 pages)                Publisher: Hideaway Fall
Publication date: 30th November 2020 Genre: Contemporary fiction

Pre-order/Purchase links*
Waterstones | Amazon UK
*Links provided for convenience only, not as part of an affiliate programme

My Review

Like the two previous books by the author I’ve read, Broken Branches and Drift Stumble Fall, 337 is strong on the detail of domestic life – the annual picnic in the park, a Sunday roast dinner – and the dynamics of family relationships. For Samuel, the book’s narrator, his childhood is punctuated by memories of tensions simmering beneath the surface of his grandparents’ and his parents’ marriage which occasionally boil over.

It quickly becomes apparent that Samuel’s life has been overshadowed by his mother’s disappearance when he was a child and the author deftly illustrates the emotional and psychological impact this has had. Not only has it caused an estrangement from his father and younger brother Tom, but it has led him to spend time in therapy. The sense of ‘unfinished business’ has also contributed to the breakdown of his marriage. Yet still he feels a compulsive need to find answers to a disappearance the police have long since consigned to the drawer marked ‘cold case’.

His grandmother’s impending death signals what may be his final opportunity to discover why his mother left and what became of her. It’s a prospect Samuel finds too difficult to resist, even if it means overcoming a breach between him and his grandmother that’s lasted nearly twenty years.

Those attracted by the mystery element of the book will be pleased to know it is liberally sprinkled with enigmatic phrases that could either be important clues or playful red herrings. There are other quirky features, some of which left me scratching my head trying to work out if they had hidden significance, and others which made me smile. Readers drawn to the book by the promise of a domestic drama will be rewarded with poignant scenes as Samuel gently tries to coax information from his dying grandmother whilst at the same time struggling to understand his own feelings of helplessness and frustration. However, I believe every reader will recall the words ‘Nothing is as it seems’ as they turn the last page.

I was fortunate enough to receive a limited edition copy of the novel from the lovely people at Hideaway Fall with its unique double-ended upside-down format. (Please note the double-ended upside-down version of the book is only available if purchased in hard copy from UK booksellers.) However, in whatever format you read 337, I think you’ll find your emotions a little topsy turvy by the end.

The author’s self-imposed challenge was “to write a novel where the entire story hinges on the last word, which changes your view about many of the characters you’ve travelled through the story with“.  Success.

In three words: Inventive, touching, insightful

Try something similar: Tell Me Where You Are by Moira Forsyth

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MJonathanLeeAbout the Author

M. Jonathan Lee is a nationally shortlisted author and mental health campaigner.  His debut novel, The Radio, was nationally shortlisted for the Novel Prize 2012. Since that time he has gone on to publish five further novels. 337 is his sixth novel. He is obsessed by novels with twists where nothing is exactly how it first appears.  He was born in Yorkshire where he still lives to this day with his twins, James and Annabel.

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